A cyber coven is a group of people of an earth-based religious faith or belief system who interact primarily, if not solely, through the Internet and/or the World Wide Web.
That is the simple answer.
Cyberspace is a technological doorway to the astral plane. The entrance cannot be found in a piece of computer hardware or in a software program that sits unused on your desk. Cyberspace is what happens when you join the soft- and hard- ware together and then activate it. By the time our conscious minds view the products created by cyberspace, the process itself is already complete, we literally stand in a place between the worlds, one with heightened potential to be as sacred as any circle cast on the ground.
For all that our roots are firmly planted within the rich loam of the past, pagans are well represented within the fields of technology. Many of us work in and with the fields of technology. As humans use our tools of technology and often have no idea how they work. For example how is it that your computer understands that a particular keystroke is equivalent to a specific symbol? For a cyberwitch, this lack of direct knowledge makes the process of writing a letter on the computer a potentially magickal experience. The logic of technology has become invisible – literally, occult. Then again, these glorious technologies are also magickal because they function as magic. With their aid, we now can impress our will upon the stuff of the world, reshaping it, at least in part, according to our imagination.
Because we understand that the extraordinary power of ritual arises from the immanent power of the Divine inherent within ourselves, Witches embrace a philosophy of transformation – of the self, of reality. Whether our tools are the athame, cutting a circle of sacred space, or a computer to access the mystical portals of the Web, Pagans love technology, and cyberwitches see all tools as technology. The tinkering, the arcana of our religion, is its strength; we see nothing as ‘set in stone’, immutable and unchanging.
Although a coven is traditionally described as a group of three or more witches who meet in an organized fashion, I also use the term in a much broader sense, one that encompasses any group that meets for a magickal purpose. A coven is more than just any group, it is an intentional family, a community of people whom you choose to have in your life, from whom you will learn and with whom you can explore the inner and outer worlds, a process that will not happen in just a month or two. Perhaps blood is thicker than water, but love is stronger than the first two put together. Although I do not believe that a coven is the only, or even the best, place to spiritually grow, participating in some form of magickal group can be a valuable experience.
Being a member of a cybercoven is not for everyone. If you have a hard time learning without some kind of face-to-face communication, you might feel lonely and out of touch in a cybercoven. If you are really bad at answering emails, it may not be the place for you. However, if you like to read or meet new people with very different points of view and experience, then a cybercoven can be an exciting experience.
~ Maat
